Iran has strongly supported the “courageous” move of the South African government against Israel which faced accusations at the World Court of genocide in its war on Gaza brought by Pretoria.
"The disgust and hatred toward the animalistic behavior of Netanyahu and the terrorist army of the Zionist regime in committing genocide and war crimes against the Palestinians cannot be washed away in the public opinion of the world under any title or logic,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on X.
“And now everyone is waiting for the immediate and decisive decision of the international justice to stop the killing machine of the Zionists,” he added.
On the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday, South Africa accused Israel of carrying out a genocide, saying the invasion aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court that the “intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level”, demanding that the UN's top court order an emergency suspension of the devastating campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
“We strongly support the courageous action of the South African government against the apartheid and child-killing regime before the International Court of Justice (citing the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide)," Amir-Abdollahian wrote.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition.